Belief
by Scarabbug
Summary: Knuckles likes his Sonic-exposure the same way he likes his coffee: in small doses. A quick Sonic X oneshot, set during the Metarex Saga.


**This one turned out a little long for my "Sonic Symphony" series. Giving it its own section seemed something like overkill, but… Yeah. I kinda wanted a nice, Knuckles-centric story stuck up on my account, so I gave it its own place anyway. This is actually one of my favourite songs to represent Knuckles. **

**Oh, and for the record? This is a one shot. **_**One shot**_**. No continuations. Ever. Seriously. **

**Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit are both appreciated. **

* * *

Belief.

It isn't that they're enemies.

Not precisely, anyway.

It's just that…

'_Sooo Knuckles, I was wondering: what would happen if I took a Chaos Emerald to this thing while it's connected to the Blue Typhoon's main power gri—'_

'_Oh for the _love of Chaos_, Sonic get those things away from there _right now_! And take a few nice big steps away from that entrance, while you're at it. I've already told you we're _not_ doing this.' _

'_Ah, yeah, thing is, Knuckles… we took a vote already: you lost, six to two.' _

'_I don't care. It's _my_ Master Emerald and I call the shots on what you can and can't do with it.'_

'_And it's _my_ cannon, so _I _call the shots on what _I_ do with that.'_

'_It is _not_ your cannon.'_

'_Sure it is it's got my name in the title an' everything. Sonic. Driver. See? Now is that big hunk of green rock back there called the _Knuckles Emerald_? I don't think so.'_

…That he's annoying as hell.

Yes, that's basically it. Knuckles likes his Sonic-exposure in the same way he likes his coffee: in small doses. It's also, oddly enough, more bearable for a longer period of time if Chris played some part in it's being there in the first place.

…He's pretty sure the boy's too young to be that good at making coffee _('Overdue Mid-Term Papers, Knuckles. How _else_ do you think I stayed conscious for solid, thirty-six hour study periods?')_ and too slow to be that good at keeping Sonic under control. Yet somehow he manages to do both pretty well, and Knuckles honestly has no idea how he does it. Frankly, he's going to miss the kid once he gets back to his own world for that reason, at least.

So yes. It really isn't that Knuckles _hates_ Sonic; it's more the fact that he dislikes being exposed to him for too long. Back home, or even while they were trapped on Earth, this was never really much of a problem –Sonic never stayed still for long enough to have any kind of conversation, unless he was bored and wanted to goad Knuckles into a fight. Out here, however, stuck in the depths of space 

on a ship that _seems_ very large, until you've paced around it a few dozen times, it's a lot harder for either of them to get away from each other.

This, naturally, has led to a few… clashes. Particularly where such things as the Sonic Driver and the Chaos Emeralds are concerned. Because it's _Knuckles' Master Emerald_ powering that cannon, damn it. Sonic had really got to stop treating it like some handy took for his suicidal escapades.

Not that this is an _escapade_, per se. It _is_ an emergency, but… Knuckles just can't see the logic of this plan no matter how much he tries. They're planning to blast Sonic directly into a Power grid designed to trap Star-ships (which the _Blue_ _Typhoon_ has somehow managed to get itself caught up in –damn those Metarex). Seriously. The only really good idea that they can come up with for getting out of this mess is to use the Sonic Driver to blast their way through it by force.

If Sonic had his way that would be their answer to everything. Metarex ships attacking in small numbers? Fire the cannon. Planet needs to be healed of an extra terrestrial disease? Fire the cannon into the earth. Cosmo having another mental shutdown when she thinks nobody is watching her? Fire the Cannon. Sonic being an easily-bored pain in the ass on a long trip? Shoot him out of the Cannon…

…Well, actually, that last one sound like a good idea right now.

'_We shouldn't do it.'_

'_Should too.'_

'Shouldn't_.'_

'_Should too. C'mon, Knuckster, have a little faith, I can take it.' _

'_Tell me that again when you return to the ship missing various important body parts.' _

'…_You really don't think I can do it, huh? I thought you knew me better than that.'_

'_I know that you can talk those people up there into just about anything. And I _didn't_ say I don't think that you can _do it_; I just don't think you can get back here in one piece afterwards. Come _on_, Sonic, use your head for once, you know we've never taken on anything like that before.'_

'_Sure, but we'd never taken on anything like the Metarex before this time last month, and we still handled that okay.'_

'Sure_, if you call getting wrapped up in an intergalactic war with metal freaks that want to destroy us all _handling things okay_.' _

The Sonic Driver Power Cannon (or the Sonic Driver, to use the short name) is, in Knuckles' eyes, an insane concept at the best and a ridiculously suicidal one at worst. Quite frankly he has no idea how Tails managed to build the thing or why he even considered it a good idea in the first place. Knuckles himself can only take about four hundred tonnes of weight in one go. The force the Driver gives out easily _quadruples_ that, and Sonic _isn't_ as strong as he is. Chris had tried to explain to Knuckles about the exact mechanical and psychical laws which meant that the cannon worked _without_ blowing Sonic into a billion pieces, but the second he'd started getting too technical Knuckles had kind of started blocking out the conversation.

So he still doesn't understand how the Power Cannon is supposed to work. And quite frankly, he doesn't trust it all that much. The Master Emerald has been giving off bad vibes about it ever since they left their planet (or maybe it just doesn't like being stuck out in space anymore than Knuckles does, he can't be sure).

'_Look I'm not saying it isn't a dangerous idea, but that doesn't mean it isn't gonna work. We do crazy stuff like this all the time, right?' _

'_And you believe this so strongly… because why?' _

'_Uh… I dunno. I guess I just kinda do, if that makes sense.'_

'_It doesn't. You're staking your life on some hunch that you might just be stronger than an intergalactic defensive shield designed to snare and hold passing Star-ships. It's an insane idea, Sonic.'_

'_Oh. Well. It's still my answer anyway. You should chill out a little, Knuckles. There doesn't have to be some great big deep reason for everything, you know. Some things just kinda… are.' _

'_Ah. Like you, in other words?'_

'_Yeah, like th— Hey!'_

'_Heh.'_

'_So not funny. Anyway, Knuckles, I'm gonna do it, and if you're gonna try and stop me, you know what you're gonna have t'do. Course, some important stuff'll probably get a little broken up, if we start a fight inside the Blue Typhoon's engine room. Tails ain't gonna like that.' _

'…_This is all some game to you, isn't it Sonic?' _

'_Who knows? If it is, then I wanna be the winner.' _

'_You haven't got a prayer, hedgehog.'_

'_Heh. Wanna find out for sure?'_

…Damn it. Can't Sonic see that Knuckles is trying to _help_ him here?

This is something of a Catch-22 situation, really. They either stick around and wait for the Metarex to come and check their traps (and thinking about it like that makes Knuckles feel like a carp or something) and hope that they can blast their way out then, or they can try and escape now and risk him getting killed. Either way, they're pretty much screwed, but he'd rather they were all screwed _together_ rather than causing each other's deaths in the process.

'_Yeah, well. I think I can do both. I mean, it's not like I've never been shot out of a cannon before, right?'_

'_Not at that speed and into that kind of an energy-shield you haven't. How can you be so sure this is going to work?'_

'_I can't. How can you be so sure that it's not?'_

'_Because I've analysed the facts and the facts say you're going to get torn into a million microscopic pieces within a matter of seconds –if you're lucky.'_

'_Yeah well, you don't have an IQ of like three hundred points or something. Tails does.'_

Sometimes Knuckles wonders whether he's the only one on this damn ship who still possesses an ounce of logic where Sonic is concerned.

Cream is too young to understand what the real world is like. Cosmo, it seems, is only able to function reasonably normally in day-to-day life because she's clinging blindly to the faint hope that the crew of the Blue Typhoon represents. Then there's Chris, and it's not that he doesn't have a brain, but sometimes the fact that _Sonic_ thinks some crazy idea is possible overrides the boy's common sense. The same with Tails. And hell, Sonic just has to bat his eyes at Amy a bit (_disturbing metal image, don't even go there, Knuckles_) and she'll keel over and do exactly what he says, however bizarre.

And they all seem to be siding with Sonic on this occasion (just like on other occasions) and Knuckles _knows_ they're going to gang up on him until he agrees and lets the Hedgehog risk his spines again.

Well… maybe he's not planning on letting that work this time.

'…_Two to six.'_

'_Say what?'_

'_Two to six, you said. So six of us voted for this ridiculous plan and _two_ voted against it. Who was the other person apart from me, Sonic?_

'…_I dunno, does it matter?' _

'_Yes you do know and yes it does matter.' _

'_Oh, c'mon, you're bein' a total Knucklehea—'_

'_It was Tails, wasn't it? Tails, the smartest person on this ship, the person who _created_ the insane weapon you want to use so badly in the first place, is the only other person who thinks this is a bad idea.' _

'…'

'…'

'_Uh…'_

'…_Right, that's it. You're definitely not doing this.' _

'_Aw, for cryin' out loud!'_

This is all the proof Knuckles need. Heck, even _Tails_ isn't too crazy about it this time. If _he_ doesn't think it's going to work then Knuckles honestly can't find it in himself to believe in it either. Damn it, Sonic will do anything if he thinks it'll be a laugh, even throw himself into his own destruction. They might not get along, but be damned if Knuckles is just going to stand aside and let the guy kill himself with _his_ Master Emerald.

'_Why're you getting so weird about this, anyway? Tails is the one who'll be firing… me out there. He _agreed_ to fire, even if he didn't agree to the idea, that tells me something.'_

'_Humph. Yeah and, it tells _me_ that Tails has a lot to learn about going with his brain rather than his gut.'_

'_Sooo you sayin' you're smarter than Tails now, Knuckster?'_

'_I never said that, I just…'_

'_Just what?'_

'…'

'_Hmm?'_

'_Oh quit grinning like that, hedgehog. Fine, so I don't have a good reason (since "you're going to get killed" apparently isn't a good enough reason for you), I just have a… bad… _feeling_ about this one, that's all.' _

'_Heh. So much for usin' your brain rather than your gut, huh? No offence Knuckles, but if we relied on y_o_ur instincts all the time, then Eggman would probably rule the universe by now.' _

…Damn. Knuckles hates it when Sonic is right. And he _does_ have rare moments where he makes sense. Knuckles honestly has no idea why Tails is agreeing to this idea if he never even voted "yes" in the first place but…

But…

Oh for the love of _Chaos_.

'_Sooo are we doin' this or what? Cause we've got about one minute an' forty seconds or so before the Metarex get here and not that I wanna run from them or anything, but I'd kinda like to be really far away by then.'_

'…_Damn it, Sonic, how can you be sure this is going to _work_?'_

'_I just am.'_

'_Hmph. You're staking your life and the Master Emerald on this, Sonic. You'd _better_ be.' _

'_Heh. Didn't know ya cared, Knuckles. Seeya in a few minutes.' _

'…_Fine, whatever. Just don't expect me to fix you up after this is over.' _

Knuckles wonders how it always ends up this way: with the force of a few peoples' solid, firm belief (in the most unlikely of individuals) over his sense of logic and Guardian-inspired instincts. Somehow or another it always finishes in the same way. They either fight to a dead tie, or Sonic pulls the wool over his eyes at the last minute and gets everyone on his side. Knuckles finds this endless pattern infuriating at the best of times, and seriously insulting at the worst.

He honestly doesn't know what everyone sees in Sonic the Hedgehog.

And yet… all of a sudden, as the Driver starts powering up and the air is filled with a familiar, emerald green light and golden energy, Knuckles actually starts to think that maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all.

'Hmph. Stupid Hedgehog. Of course I care.'

* * *

"_Belief is a beautiful armour  
but makes for the heaviest sword  
like punching underwater  
you never can hit who you're trying for  
Some lead the exhibition  
and some have to know they tried  
it's the chemical weapon  
for the war that's raging on inside __  
Oh, everyone believes  
from emptiness to everything.  
Oh, everyone believes  
and no one's going quietly." _

**Belief, John Mayer.**


End file.
